Advice regarding ICSE Computer Applications Examination

This article will consist of few of the basic things which you need to take care of for your ICSE Computer Applications Examination. This advice is just to make sure that you have brushed the critical points before your exams.

The paper will consist of 2 sections divided into 40 marks Theory + 60 marks Programming. You will be allotted 2 hours in all apart from the 15 minutes reading time.

1) Being Smart In the Exam center – Some Important Advice

So you have in all 135 minutes (15 minutes reading time + 120 minutes for writing the answers). You have to make good use of the 15 minutes you are allotted for reading the question paper. No, I don’t mean by this that you read the question paper 3-4 times.

When you get the paper. Turn to Section B and go through the programs first. Decide 4 programs you are going to attempt. It will take hardly 5 minutes to come to a conclusion.

Next, start reading Section A. As and when you get questions whose answers are just one word, quickly make up the answer in your mind. Do this for the output questions as well.

So, when this 15 minutes finishes you will have most of the questions solved mentally.

Now you have 120 minutes in your hand.

Begin writing from Section A onwards. Don’t waste time and be quick. Complete Section A in 20-30 minutes. Now don’t panic. This is no big deal as the questions are really easy and require short answers. Yes I know the students can. And they have been doing so. It is just that it feels that you can’t.

You will have 90 minutes left with you (if you took 30 minutes for the theory part). Start writing the programs.

Now I would suggest the student to attempt all the 6 questions if they know. Only the best 4 is selected. So if you attempt 6 questions in 90 minutes, which comes to around 15 minutes per program. Which I think is enough. If you cannot attempt 6 questions, then at least attempt 5 questions.

2) What to cover for the theory part?

Now in this portion you get questions from all parts of your syllabus. So, you need to go through your text books or class or tuition notes for brief theory of every chapters.

Remember, short output questions and fill in the blanks of small programs are also included in this theory portion. Give importance to the various Character, String and Mathematical functions.

I have tried to list down few of the important topics from the theory part which should be taken into consideration while going through the theory part:

Elementary Concept of Objects and Classes.

Objects encapsulate state and behavior – numerous examples; member variables; attributes or features.

Classes as abstractions for sets of objects; class as an object factory; concept of type, primitive data types, composite data types. Variable declarations for both types; difference between the two types. Objects as instances of a class.

87 comments

I am appearing for the ICSE 2017 examinations . I have some doubts regarding computer programs:
1. Is split() function allowed in ICSE to avoid unnecessary looping ?
2. Can we use StringBuffer and its methods(eg reverse()) ?
3. Can we use Character.getNumericValue()?

Sir
In our school we have been taught that string objects cannot be modified and to save changes a new object has to be created
So if there is string s and I apply
s =s.repalce(‘ ‘,’c’);
Will this function work
Please help

Yes it will work. You have been taught correct.
What the above line is doing is creating a new String literal which the old String object is now pointing to. So no new object is created. The String object now points to a new value. The old value also remains in the memory, but is no longer pointed to by that object.

A number, 3.4 can be rounded off to either 3.0 or 4.0
ceil gives you the maximum rounded off value (Remember, ceil = ceiling = on top). So Math.ceil(3.4) will give 4.0
floor gives you the minimum rounded off value (Remember, floor = at bottom). So Math.floor(3.4) will give 3.0

In case of negative number, remember, that -3.4 can be rounded off to -3.0 or -4.0
-3.0 is greater than -4.0.
Hence, Math.ceil(-3.4) will give -3.0 and Math.floor(-3.4) will give -4.0

LoL ….
Tomorrow is my computer exam (Boards)
Nd i didnt even knew tat we gotta write comments and description also xD its beneficial !
Thnkx to dis site 🙂
My teachers never told…nd m sure they never did !

Hello 🙂
My teacher thought most of all the programs using buffered reader itself can I also use Scanner class? I’m studying in 10th ICSE
Should we only use BufferedReader or even scanner class is allowed?

These are certain non-graphic characters, which cannot be typed directly from the keyboard. these characters are represented in Java by using escape sequences, which begin with a backslash () and are followed by one or more characters. Some examples:
1. \t for Horizontal tab
2. \n for New Line
3. \’ for Single Quote
4. \” for Double Quote

It is the data member which is created for every object of the class. Many copies of it are available in the memory as it is made for every object of the
class.

Example:
class Sample
{
String name;
int age;
}

Here, name and age are instance variables.

Class (or Global or Static) variable:

It is the data member which is declared once for a class and all the objects of this class shares this data member. Only a single copy of the variable is
accessible to all objects in the memory for operations. The keyword ‘static‘ is used to make a variable a class variable.

Example:
class Sample
{
String name;
static int age;
}
Here, the variable age is a class variable because it has ‘static’ before it, while the variable name is an instance variables.

Sir,
If there are two parts to a question where initial values of a variable are given then in the second part too we will use the initial values or we will use the values which came out in the first part of the question?

No, Java does not uses BODMAS to solve Arithmetic statements. It uses a system of Precedence and associativity. It first tries to give importance to the operation having higher precedence. If there are operators having the same precedence, then it gives importance to the operators based on associativity.
In the given expression double c = (0+10.25*-5/2.5); * and / operators have a higher precedence than + operator, so they will be evaluated first. Now, * and / have the same precedence, so associativity rule in this case is that we evalutae from left to right whiever comes first whether it be * or /.

No need for examples in 2 marks questions.
If you are writing differences, write at least 2 differences. If you know only one difference, then write the examples as the second point in difference.
Relax, it won’t take 1 hour.

These are certain non-graphic characters, which cannot be typed directly from the keyboard. these characters are represented in Java by using escape sequences, which begin with a backslash () and are followed by one or more characters. Some examples:
1. \t for Horizontal tab
2. \n for New Line
3. \’ for Single Quote
4. \” for Double Quote

But what is the point of doing an extra question?? we can do the 4 and then check the rest of the paper…… what if one attempts 5 questions and gets 13 on both of them…… we can always check the paper after finishing it and we might be able to convert the 13 or 14 to a 15…… well its just my opinion……

You have to first do the 4 programs you are sure at. Next attempt the extra question(s).

Consider 2 situations:

Situation 1: You did 4 questions in which you were sure and you are getting 15, 15, 15 and 14. The marks can be deducted due to many factor(s). You may think at that moment that you applied the correct logic, but it may be that you skipped some part which were asked or you made an unintentional unrecognizable mistake which leads to a deduction in your marks. No matter how hard you revise, sometimes mitsakes aren’t that apparent. In such situation you are scoring 39/40. By the way, re-read the line “No matter how hard…..” again. See if you were able to catch the mistake in it. 🙂

Situation 2: You did 6 questions and you are getting 15, 14, 15, 15, 15 and 14. In such situation you are scoring 40/40.

It may happen that you score more marks in a program you did as extra compared to the one you were sure of.

At the end of the day it is your choice to follow this advice or not. I have seen positive results from this practice by the students.

Sir,
i am an ICSE student and i find it very difficult to choose questions under section-B……can u help me by suggesting what are the questions that are better to choose and would fetch me marks easily?

valueOf() function converts a String to any other primitive data type. Example: int a = Integer.valueOf(“123”); will convert the String literal “123” into an integer literal and store it in the variable ‘a’

sir, i want to know that if we are pretty much sure about our programs , do we still need to attempt an extra one, like can’t we just revise those nicely and the theory part, it never finishes within thirty minutes, some tips for that please if you can provide.

Hello Tejaswini,
It will finish in 30 minutes. Even if you take 45 minutes, then you will still have 75 minutes and you can do 5 programs.
It is for the good of students that I am asking them to attempt atleast one extra question. It may happen that you get 14 marks in a program and 15 in another.
There is no harm in attempting an extra question. At the end of the day, you have to make a decision. Don’t think that we are forcing you to do so… 🙂 Relax.

hello,sir May i know how can we write variabel dercrption and how we comment and also in our school we are always told not try to over attempt it will only cause harm to us please tell should i attempt more than 4 or at least 5 and i will get marks for best 4 or not please give me answere which is good!

Best 4 is considered in ICSE. So no need to worry. Teachers usually forbid doing this because they have to give extra time for checking your extra question. There is no harm in doing extra questions. There is only additional benefits in it.

ICSE | ISC Sample Papers

In this section we will be providing you with the Sample/Guess papers of ICSE (Computer Applications) and ISC (Computer Science) which can be easily downloaded. We hope that the students will benefit from these resources.